Friday, March 1, 2013

Hi Everybody!! Yes, we are finally
living in Paraiso, Tabasco, Mexico! Lots to learn. The trip down was
more crazy than we had planned. Settling in now. We can find our
house now which is pretty important when all you want to do is to go
home. So, read on if you would like to be brought up to date on our
big adventure.

I must not have thinking clearly or at
all because the time I had allocated to moving was not enough. Even I
was shocked by how much stuff we had accumulated throughout the
years. I stored what I wanted to keep in case we ever move back to
the U.S. We gave lots of items away—that part was fun! We had a
yard sale too! Megan was super helpful with the sale and in countless
other ways along with Blaine and the girls—she is an ace seller! In
the end our congregation came through and helped with the packing,
yard clean up and then with the cleaning of the house. I got sick.
At first I thought it was the dust making my allergies kick in but
the fever and chills made me think that perhaps I really was sick.
So many friends asked if they could help but I said no because I was
not feeling well. I was surprised to tears when some friends said
that it did not matter they would still help. Some brought dinner.
One dear sister baked me a wheat free chocolate cake!! Some young
brothers worked hard helping out. I was carefully packing our car
but the worse I felt the more that others packed it. Mexico doesn't
have a lot of Volvos driving around so mechanics are hard to find and
you must wait for the parts to be shipped in. Robin decided to give
his precious little Volvo to Sage. We bought a 1997 Dodge mini-van
from Levi & Nicole. They even drove it out to Phoenix from
Oxnard, CA since they had to be there in order for Levi to give a
talk in a sign-language congregation.

One brother took us out for a nice sit
down dinner which was much appreciated after eating so much take out
food from the local Mexican restaurant. The congregation had a
coffee and munchies for us at the hall on our last Saturday in
Clifton. It was very nice to see everyone. It was also very sad to
say good-bye. Our service group had had a lunch for us the week
before...it was a delicious turkey dinner. Missing familiar foods
already...

We were so overwhelmed with moving that
we asked our very dear landlords if we could have some extra days at
the house. Thankfully they agreed to let us stay on. We were under a
time frame to cross the border by Friday, February 8, 2012. We had
to get an import permit to bring our car into Mexico. The permit
expired on Friday the 8th. We had also decided to try to
stay in the U.S. For as long as we could while driving so we planned
to cross the border in Brownsville, Texas into Matamoros, Mexico. The
problem was that our permit was tied into crossing the border at that
crossing. We could not change our schedule. Our dogs (yes, we
brought them too!!) had to get an international bill of health from
their vet but that too was only valid for a limited time.

February 3rd found us trying
to finish the packing, taking boxes to storage, cleaning the house
and yard and leave to see Sage in Phoenix. I felt terrible and Megan
was sick too. Friends came to help before meeting and realized that
we were really behind schedule so they said that they had decided to
stay and continue helping rather than go to meeting. I am truly
grateful for the genuine brotherly love they showed us. We could not
have done the move in the time frame we had if it had not been for
the love and help we received. It was humbling to realize how truly
a spiritual family we are...we care for each other as if we were
biological family. Still makes me tear up thinking about how family
and friends went out of their way to help us.

We were told to just go around 2pm. Our
friends said that they would take care of the rest...taking stuff to
storage, cleaning, taking unwanted items to a local charity's shop.
Thank you just doesn't cover the heartfelt gratitude we feel towards
the Clifton Congregation.

When we tried to start the van it would
not start. Battery trouble. Guess what? A brother had a new battery
at his house that would fit perfectly! New battery in place,
good-byes said, tears shed, and we were finally off.

Going to Sage's through the mountains
was a little hard on our over packed old mini-van but five hours
later we arrived at Sage's only planning to say good-bye and move on.
Sage realized that I felt horrible so she insisted that we stay and
go in the morning to a Walgreen's walk-in clinic. Megan had gone to
her doctor in Morenci after we left. She tested positive for strep.
Yuck! Donna, Sage's room-mate/landlord, agreed that we could stay
since she too was sick. I too tested positive for strep and had the
prescription for antibiotics filled. The doctor made the
prescription out for double the length of time she would normally
have done since I would be in Mexico by the time I finished taking
them and could get re-tested. Robin's doctor agreed to call in a
prescription for him too since our situation was unique. We were
really worried about all of the friends we had exposed to strep
especially a pregnant friend. So far I have only heard of one sister
who got sick but may have been sick before, still, I feel very guilty
about exposing any of them when all they wanted to do was to help us.

Finally on Tuesday we continued our
very long drive. We drove from Phoenix to El Paso, Texas and spent
the night with Lela and her very cute and obedient dog. Thankfully
Lela is an elephant trainer at the El Paso Zoo and didn't mind
welcoming us and our two dogs. We all appreciated staying at her
place.

Wednesday night found us in San Antonio
staying at a La Quinta hotel since the chain accepts dogs.

Thursday was border-crossing day!
Yikes! Would we have to unpack everything? Did we have all of the
paperwork in order? We still needed to complete the car import at the
border-crossing. The drive from San Antonio down was pretty nice. I
had never seen that part of Texas.

Oh, forgot to tell you that Robin had
bought a Garmin on Ebay and was enjoying using it. It had a chip for
Mexico too.

Robin and I did not know what to
expect. We had heard that there could be long lines. We were
nervous about what line to get in. We drove over a bridge and
suddenly we were in Mexico. We had crossed but still had customs and
the car permit to complete. We drove into an area with buildings and
parking slots under cover. This was the first stop in Mexico. We were
told to park and walk into a building to complete our car importation
permit. There was another man being helped and then it was our turn.
Yes, the man agreed that we had completed the paperwork on line and
then gave us a sticker to put on the windshield behind the rear view
mirror. When we returned to the car a customs officer wanted to meet
the dogs and asked what we were bringing. He asked us to make a list.
We did. Since we could not find notepaper we used a sheet off a
drawing pad that I had. As he read down the list he ran across “art
supplies” and said such as the drawing paper that the list was
written on. Very observant! He said that he was good with everything
and that we could go on through but that we would face a federal
customs police blockade in about an hour from there and if we got
through that we would be good to go for the rest of Mexico. So, maybe
it wouldn't be so easy-peasy afterall.

It was strange being in our new
country. Everything was so different and had suddenly became so. The
Garmin was doing her thing and leading us to Victoria. We saw
farmlands and local houses. People living their everyday lives. Wow!
Our life was indeed changing! Around about an hour on the road we
came to the blockade. The customs officer asked the same questions.
What did we have in the van? Household goods was our answer. We gave
him the list the other officer had seen. He looked it over. He did
ask Robin to open his ammo boxes that he uses to carry his hand tools
in. Blaine had mentioned in Clifton that maybe that wasn't such a
good idea for this trip. Wise man. The officer was okay with what
his random searching had uncovered. He said to have a good trip. We
were through!!!! One of the most amazing things was that through all
of this our dogs never barked or growled. It was as if their mouths
were sealed shut!

We were stopped about 6-8 times more by
Federal Police blockades but the officers were nice and asked where
we were going. They sometimes asked if the dogs were “brava”,
biters...I said maybe, I couldn't really say since all of this was
new to them. The officers said okay, they understood...have a good
trip! Wahoooo!!

Mexico Bethel had told us not to drive
at night so we had decided to stay in Victoria but were having a
rough time finding a hotel that took dogs. It was hot. The Holiday
Inn were sorry but if we wanted to we could leave our dogs in our car
in their underground parking lot. No. The girl was very nice and
said that she would call around and help us find a place. She found
a Mexican resort that would. She gave us direction and sent us off.
It turned out to be the best place on the trip. La Fuentes is an old
Mexican gated resort with tennis courts, pools, horses, and a great
breakfast buffet. The room was beautiful! We got room service and it
was great food with cold beer! In the morning we walked the dogs, had
breakfast and checked out.

The garmin now had a name, Michelle.
She was still on task in directing us on Mexican roads. Traffic was
interesting. Slow traffic stays to the right with one side on the
side of the road. Traffic was like a dance....passing, moving over to
let others pass, blinking lights to help others know when it was safe
to pass. We thought driving in Mexico might not be so bad.

About 30 minutes outside of Victoria,
the van started to slow down. We pulled into a Pemex ( Mexican
Petroleum gas stations...the only ones in the country) Something was
very wrong with the brakes or the wheel bearing. We called Bethel.
They promised to get help out. They got the gas station number and
the phone number in order to find our exact location. After a while
three cars pulled up. Bethel had called the circuit overseer for
that area who then called the congregations around there who then
called a brother who was a mechanic to go out and help us. We were so
happy to see them! Their english was very rough. It was decided that
the problem was the brake. We would drive in a caravan to the
brother's shop where he could repair it. On the way we started to
smoke. The caravan stopped and repairs were made on the side of the
road so that we could complete the drive. The emergency brake had
stuck so it was burning up. Bummer.

We did make it safely to the Brother's garage. He repaired the brakes. It was decided that it was too late in the day to get back on the road. The Brother invited us to stay at his house. He and his wife lived with her parents who were in Honduras helping in Spanish congregations. His wife's sister and brother-in-law also lived in the home and they were getting ready to leave that Monday for their first circuit assignment. They are part of the Nhautl speaking congregations---the spelling is probably very wrong but it is an indigenous language here in Mexico, in fact, Mexicans think it was their first language. So, it was very nice to meet all of them and have dinner together. The next morning the brother drove us out of Victoria back on the right road. The road was a potentially dangerous road for the inexperienced. Safely back on the road, we were off again! The pictures are from my phone showing the dogs and the border. The group shot is from tonight at a restaurant with the friends from Villahermosa. More later! Love you!

Wow!! So glad you guys are safe..and feeling better! You certainly had lots of interesting (I didn't say they were all pleasant, lol) adventures. But you truly are experiencing the worldwide brotherhood it sounds like! Can't wait for the next installment! :)